Pop Music with Soul
Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song about a person from San Jose who tries to make it but doesn’t in show business in Los Angeles and winds up homeward bound. The prominent bass drum, played by session musician Gary Chester, sounds like a car bumping along the freeway.
In 1968, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” became in international hit for Dionne Warwick. It also won her a Grammy Award. Warwick first released the song on her album Dionne Warwick in Valley of the Dolls. Then it was released as a single with “Let Me Be Lonely” as the B-Side. The single went to #10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100, #23 on the Billboard R&B Chart, #4 on Easy Listening, #15 in Australia, and #8 in Canada, the U.K., and Ireland. There have been many covers of the song, including versions by Connie Francis, The Temptations and The Supremes together, Neil Diamond, Nancy Sinatra, and The Carpenters.
Warwick was born Marie Dionne Warrick in East Orange, New Jersey. Besides being among the most-chartered female vocalists in a variety of genres from gospel and R&B to pop, Warwick is an actress and TV show host. She also has been a United Nations Goodwill Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization and a U.S. Ambassador of Health. Warwick continues to tour and perform.